Bengaluru's Incluzza helps Google bring accessible gaming closer home

Project Gameface, an open source, hands-free, on-device, AI-powered ‘mouse’ developed by Google, was designed through feedback from Incluzza, a social enterprise in Bengaluru that supports people with disabilities. Gameface allows users to control a cursor on a phone, computer or tablet with head movements and facial expressions via a webcam. Users can for example raise their eyebrows to click and drag or open their mouth to move the cursor.

“We collaborated with Incluzza to learn how Project Gameface can be expanded to educational, work, and other settings, like being able to type messages to family or searching for new jobs,” said Avneet Singh, product manager, Google Partner Innovation, at an international press briefing and demo on May 14 on the sidelines of Google I/O in Mountain View, California.

The Project Gameface code is up on Github. Google open sourced the code to help developers build Android applications to make devices more accessible.


Vinaya Chinnappa, chief executive of Enable India Solutions, of which Incluzza is a part, told ET, “We work with persons with disabilities to prepare them for livelihoods and with companies to make workplaces an inclusive ecosystem be it in hiring, serving customers with disabilities, making their premises or digital infrastructure accessible.”

Gameface is aimed at improving accessibility not at an individual application level, but at a broader system level like a personal computer or mobile phone for enhanced usage.

“Our association with Google for Gameface started in mid-February this year,” said Shristi G, account manager, Incluzza. “The team had reached out asking if they could get feedback from various users of Gameface. Based on that feedback the product was improved.”

A team of seven users at Incluzza with limited upper body mobility had been using Gameface on their phone and giving feedback on a real-time basis.

“We saw improvement and changes being made by Google based on the recommendations of these users. Now, based on this open-source code, so many more accessible products and innovations can be made in this space,” she said.

Products for accessibility in the market include Dragon, which is a dictation software that transcribes spoken words into text; Glassouse, a small assistive wireless head mouse for people with disabilities to control their phone, computer, and tablets hands-free; and Tecla, which allows quadriplegics to use electronics.

Such products help in developing a “purple economy,” the colour of disability inclusion, she said. This has the potential to generate job opportunities once disability support systems become a mainstream activity, she added.

Since Gameface also enables gaming, it opens up opportunities for persons with disabilities, Shristi said.

Gameface was inspired by quadriplegic video game streamer Lance Carr, who lives with muscular dystrophy, a progressive disease that weakens muscles.

During the Gameface demo seen by ET on an Android mobile phone, a user could use facial gestures such as ‘open mouth’, ‘smile’, ‘mouth left’, ‘mouth right’, ‘raise eyebrows’, and ‘look up’ to select apps, text and buttons.